The climate on the coast is more equable and much milder in winter than in any other part of Canada; but as the mountains are ascended, greater cold prevails, with more snow, and the characteristics of greater dryness of atmosphere which mark the climate of the interior of the continent are found.
The population of British Columbia, by the Census of 1881, did not exceed 49,459, of which 25,661 were Indians. This comparatively sparse population is due to the hitherto isolated position of the Province; but now that railway communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Dominion of Canada is being rapidly pushed forward to completion by a route which offers the easiest gradients and the most important natural commercial advantages of any possible line across the continent of America, the inducements the Province offers to settlers are beginning to attract the attention, as well of the emigrating classes of the Old World, as of the migrating classes of this continent; and population is already beginning to flow rapidly in. It is beyond doubt that the percentage of increase which will be shown at the next decennial Census will be a statistical fact to excite men’s wonder. Its fisheries, its forests, its mineral resources, will provide work for thousands who are starving at home. And it will be easily reached when the Canadian Pacific Railway is completed.
I have now reached the end of my journey, and I sum up my emigration experiences. The emigrant, if strong and industrious, and ready to take advantage of opportunities, and not averse to roughing it, will be sure to find work; but he must be shy, if he has cash, of land schemers, and I would advise him, if he thinks of settling, not to be in a hurry about it, but to take time to look around. I have seen as fine farming country as anywhere in the world. I have seen other parts where no one can get a living. Amongst the emigrants I see many who must succeed anywhere, and many who will go to the wall wherever they may be.
Let me give you another illustration of the bursting of an emigration scheme. The London dailies often have advertisements offering for a certain bonus to provide young men with homes where farming in all its branches is taught. The London (Ont.) papers tell how a number of young fellows have been taken in in this way. They paid the advertisers sums from thirty pounds upwards, in addition to their passage money, the consideration being that on their arrival in Ontario they were to be placed on farms and kept there at the agent’s expense. Of course, when they reached their journey’s end, no farmers were to be found. If a young Englishman wishes to try farming in Canada, he cannot do better than hire himself to a farmer for a year or two and keep his money in his pocket for the purchase of a farm.
But even then he must not buy a farm till he knows something about it, and he cannot be long out here before he will find out where the good land is. A Canadian whom I met at Calgary, told me that he knew a farm near Toronto which was regularly in the market every year. It is safe to be bought by an Englishman, who tries it for a time, gives it up in despair, and then it comes into the market again.
‘Are there any stones on the farm?’ asked an Englishman, after he had purchased his farm.
‘I only saw one,’ was the encouraging reply: and it was a truthful one. There was but one stone, but then it embraced the surface of the whole farm.
The English purchaser must have his wits about him. Here he is by many regarded as a stranger, and they take him in. The poet tells us where ignorance is bliss ’tis folly to be wise. Ignorance is not bliss in Canada, emigrants really must have their wits about them or they will suffer much.
Near Moosomin there is some fine country where many English have settled. Only last week an Englishman selected a farm in that locality for a homestead. He at once proceeded there, having at considerable expense hired a conveyance for his wife and four children. When he got there he found the land already occupied. To add to his troubles, when he returned to Moosomin one of his children died; the result is that the wife has grown home-sick, the poor man disheartened; he wants to return to England, but he has already exhausted his means. This want of harmony between the land office and the guides, according to The Manitoba Free Press, is said to be of frequent occurrence. The Dominion Government ought to see to this. They are eager to promote emigration, but many such cases will make English farmers naturally a little reluctant to come out.